After reading ‘What It’s Like Starting My First Business,’ I decided to write my own take on what having a business at a young age really requires. I’ve been doing nails for the past few years on and off but just began taking it seriously and accepting clients in early June. In her article, she mentions the struggles of building your brand and social media presence, which is definitely a big part of growing your business.
In my case, I’m fortunate enough to have good friends who’ve supported me and helped out a lot in that part of the process. My social media accounts still have much room for improvement, though. For instance, I could be posting more consistently and with better quality content, but I’ll get there. Unfortunately, one of my biggest problems that my friends can’t help with much is me.
The truth is nothing’s great in its early phases—it takes months of practice and failure to get to the point where you’re satisfied. Continuing through while being unsatisfied is the hard part. Having patience and waiting for growth isn’t easy, especially with social media constantly showing artists’ works that look 10x better than mine.
The learning stages in the beauty industry can be so discouraging. From issues with how long the nails lasted to the unevenly drawn designs, it was so hard to keep going. I felt like I was trying everything, but regardless, my sets were coming out horrible. Overall, being dissatisfied with how my work looked kept me from taking clients and practicing on a regular basis. But I kept practicing on my own nails and eventually got my confidence back to finally take clients, but it took a long time (almost three years).
So many instances have discouraged me along the way. But now, when this happens, I look back at where I started and where I’m at now—and most importantly, where I’ll be if I keep going. It’s easy to be your biggest critic. But remember that everyone starts at the same place, we are all just at different stages in our journeys. As long as you continue, you’ll get to the point you never thought you would.
I’m only about four months into taking clients, and I’m already seeing so much improvement. In retrospect, I’m glad I never let the length or difficulty of the process stop me. Though I definitely wish that I would’ve stopped thinking so much and started branching out sooner.
No matter how far you get you’re bound to run into issues, that’s life. In the end, if you keep at it, you’ll always overcome them. You can’t enjoy the successes of having your own business without going through the hardships as well.
But trust me when I say the successes are 100% worth those hardships.
